Planetarion Wiki - User contributions [en]

Intermediate Tactics

2006-03-12T13:06:28Z

KingAlan:

From a Strategic Discussions forum post make by Monroe on Sept. 23rd, 2005.

[[Basic Tactics]]
[[Advanced Tactics]]

Tactic: Disguised Fleet Attack (aka Fake Attack)
Description: Similar to Fake Defense, send a fleet of one class disguised as a fleet of another class. For example, sending a bunch of FR that have the same number of ships as your DE's, then later send your DE's faked as BS (for terrans). Defender will think the first wave is DEs and send anti DE, defender will think second wave is BS and send anti BS, therefore your DE will get through unharmed.
Counter: Fleet scans can tell the difference, as long as you don't get blocked. Otherwise calc your home fleet against the attackers potential attack fleets. Using the above example, if you have pretty good BS defense, but terrible DE defense, simply assume both incomming fleets are DE and defend accordingly. Otherwise massive overkill on def ussually works, but is rarely a good option.

actic: Mutli Race Attack
Description: This tactic involves finding a friend of another race to attack with. Because races have different advantages and weaknesses, combining two races together can sometimes be a very powerful attack fleet which is nearly impossible to defend against. One classic example would be cath and zik CR/BS combo attack. Essentially the caths freeze the attackers, and the zik's clean up. Another great example is the 1-2 punch of zik and terran BS attacks, they target most classes and are hard to stop. Essentially any two races can combine at some level, but which combos are best depends on the current ship stats.
Counter: If the attack is done right there is no good counter, other then overwhelming defense. If you are lucky you can find a ship that the attackers don't target, and that does target the attackers, but if the attackers are smart, this isn't really an option.

Tactic: Defense Specialization (aka Fleet Swaping)
Description: If you have alot of anti CR, and your mate(s) have alot of anti BA, and you have BA incs and they have CR incs, you send your fleet to defend a mate, they send their fleet(s) to defend you. It is especially effective if also combined with fake defence, ie you fake another anti CR fleet to another of your gal mates, thus potentially covering two incs with only half the ships .
Counter: The obvious counter if you think your target is likely to swap in-gal def or has a previous tendency to do so, is to send both a CR fleet and a BA fleet at him - that way if he defends his gal mate he leaves himself wide open.

Tactic: Liquid Assets (Defense)
Description: This tactic is fairly straightforward. As your planet grows your fleet can become unbalanced in terms of it's ability to kill various classes of ships. You may choose to focus on an attack fleet and in so doing leave yourself vulnerable to attacks from classes of ships your attack fleet doesn't target. With the liquid assets the concept is to save up a reserve of funds to be used if you are attacked. That way you can buy the exact defense you need and have it show up the same tick the attacker lands suprising him with unexpected defense.
Counter: Planet scan all your targets before launching and again before landing, if he has a lot of resources when you launch, and few when you land, odds are he built a bunch of ships.
Notes: This tactic is most effective for zik's who can have an extremely unbalanced fleet late in the game due to stealing. In addition make sure you have production as an engineering priority so that you can build ships fast enough to have them available in time (production time of 7 or less). Lastly this defense has the downside of if you build the ships expecting him to run because it will be messy for both sides don't count on it, he may not use the counter and so land anyway.

[[Category: Strategy]]

Basic Tactics

2006-03-12T12:50:23Z

KingAlan:

From a Strategic Discussions forum post made by Monroe on Sept. 23rd, 2005.

[[Intermediate Tactics]]
[[Advanced Tactics]]

Tactic: Send, recall, resend
Description: Launch an attack, jumpgate the attack near the end of the first tick to see if there is defense, if there is defence recall right at the end of the tick and resend the following tick. The advantage of this often used tactic is it soaks up out of galaxy defense, and gives you a second opportunity to attack.
Counter: The best counter to this strategy is active defense, rather then passive defense. Having defenders on at the end of the first tick to recall can be very useful. Another good counter strategy is to organize an attack on your would be attacker that will require him to keep his attack fleet home to defend. Then use the same tactic back at him, ie jpg at the end of the first tick and recall if he got defense.

Tactic: Run fleet
Description: When you are faced with a heavy amount of incs, that you can't really do anything about (i.e. you didn't get much defence), send your fleet away. Move your fleet into an open fleetslot, and send it to some target where nothing's going on. (i.e defend 1:1:1 with +11 prelaunch) Put it on prelaunch because, if a fleet is on prelaunch, it is not considered to be at your planet. Make sure to cancel the prelaunch after the attackers land.
Why: Roids are generally easier to replace than ships.
Counter: No specific counter, since you can't tell if a target has run his fleet. Don't worry about it, because you'll still get his roids.

Tactic: Single class attack
Description: Send only one class of ships on any given attack, thereby limiting which of your targets ships can target your fleet.
Counter: No specific counter, just find the right defense.

Tactic: Fake Defense
Description: When a friend has incomming and you have the correct type of ships, but those ships are not home send a different type of ship instead in the exact quantity you have of the ship that would be effective. If the attacker does a jumpgate he will not know that the defense is fake and will have to assume it is real and will therefor recall.
Counter: No known counter, other then landing anyway and seeing what shows up. If the defense is from outside the target gal you CAN do a news scan at eta 1 and see what the initial eta of the defense was, if the defense eta is different then what it should have been (ie 7 because the fake def is FI rather then 8 because the real def would have been FR) then you know the def is fake. (In my personal experiance however this rarely is useful.)

[[Category:Strategy]]

Basic Tactics

2006-03-12T12:48:17Z

KingAlan:

From a Strategic Discussions forum post made by Monroe on Sept. 23rd, 2005.

[[Intermediate Tactics]]
[[Advanced Tactics]]

Tactic: Send, recall, resend
Description: Launch an attack, jumpgate the attack near the end of the first tick to see if there is defense, if there is defence recall right at the end of the tick and resend the following tick. The advantage of this often used tactic is it soaks up out of galaxy defense, and gives you a second opportunity to attack.
Counter: The best counter to this strategy is active defense, rather then passive defense. Having defenders on at the end of the first tick to recall can be very useful. Another good counter strategy is to organize an attack on your would be attacker that will require him to keep his attack fleet home to defend. Then use the same tactic back at him, ie jpg at the end of the first tick and recall if he got defense.

Tactic: Run fleet
Description: When you are faced with a heavy amount of incs, that you can't really do anything about (i.e. you didn't get much defence), send your fleet away. Move your fleet into an open fleetslot, and send it to some target where nothing's going on. (i.e defend 1:1:1 with +11 prelaunch) Put it on prelaunch because, if a fleet is on prelaunch, it is not considered to be at your planet. Make sure to cancel the prelaunch after the attackers land.
Why: Roids are generally easier to replace than ships.
Counter: No specific counter, since you can't tell if a target has run his fleet. Don't worry about it, because you'll still get his roids.

Tactic: Single class attack
Description: Send only one class of ships on any given attack, thereby limiting which of your targets ships can target your fleet.
Counter: No specific counter, just find the right defense.

Tactic: Fake Defense
Description: When a friend has incomming and you have the correct type of ships, but those ships are not home send a different type of ship instead in the exact quantity you have of the ship that would be effective. If the attacker does a jump gate he will not know that the defense is fake and will have to assume it is real and will therefor recall.
Counter: No known counter, other then landing anyway and seeing what shows up. If the defense is from outside the target gal you CAN do a news scan at eta 1 and see what the initial eta of the defense was, if the defense eta is different then what it should have been (ie 7 because the fake def is FI rather then 8 because the real def would have been FR) then you know the def is fake. In my personal experiance however this rarely is useful.

Zik and Cath: A winning combination

2006-03-01T23:01:08Z

KingAlan:

Posted in the strategy forum on Feb. 20th, 2006 by KingAlan

Zik and Cat- A lovely combination

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or not so lovely if you're on the receiving end...

Zik and Cat players could talk with eachother more, and organize combined attacks and defences landing at the same tick. Why? Well lets look at the benefits for both sides.

Cat: Additional support, and some ships that can destroy types that Cat can only freeze.
Zik: For a Zik, nothing is easier to steal than a frozen ship. Also, as one of the "weakest" races, stealing is hard for them to do unless in much greater numbers, so this dramatically increases the gaining of new ships.

Or, in other words:
Cat = Low Init (Shoot first) and Freezing
Zik = High Init (Shoot last) and Stealing

Combining those two you get Shooting First and Stealing. That's why the combo is so deadly.

Or, Ziks, go out and hit Cathaar targets, then you can work with stolen Cathaar ships yourself, and not have to deal with coordination issues...

Roaches are especially useful for going with Zik CR. Spiders would be useful with Zik FI if you're hitting a Terran, and your Interceptors don't fully overcome his Harpies.

Get some Hornets to go with the Roaches, and then you have a nice self-contained roiding AND stealing fleet.

Oftentimes, using FI or CO fleets involves having a huge amount of said ship class, for flak. As with any race, Cathaar ships can be useful for providing this flak. Note: Pegasus init beats Harpy into, keep that in mind when using a CO fleet against Terran.

Somewhat as with the Hornets, if you can pick up some Daggers (Xan), you have a nice roiding/stealing combo fleet for CO.

Advantages of the self-contained fleet: A bit obvious. You can accomplish both stealing and roiding with the same fleet, using only one fleetslot. And, if your target runs his fleet, you'll still get some roids.

(Specific shipnames mentioned here reference r16 stats)

[[Category:Strategy]]

Zik and Cath: A winning combination

2006-03-01T22:59:43Z

KingAlan:

Posted in the strategy forum on Feb. 20th, 2006 by KingAlan

Zik and Cat- A lovely combination

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or not so lovely if you're on the receiving end...

Zik and Cat players could talk with eachother more, and organize combined attacks and defences landing at the same tick. Why? Well lets look at the benefits for both sides.

Cat: Additional support, and some ships that can destroy types that Cat can only freeze.
Zik: For a Zik, nothing is easier to steal than a frozen ship. Also, as one of the "weakest" races, stealing is hard for them to do unless in much greater numbers, so this dramatically increases the gaining of new ships.

Or, in other words:
Cat = Low Init (Shoot first) and Freezing
Zik = High Init (Shoot last) and Stealing

Combining those two you get Shooting First and Stealing. Thats why the combo is so deadly.

Or, Ziks, go out and hit Cathaar targets, then you can work with the Cathaar ships yourself, and not have to deal with coordination issues...

Roaches are especially useful for going with Zik CR. Spiders would be useful with Zik FI if you're hitting a Terran, and your Interceptors don't fully overcome his Harpies.

Get some Hornets to go with the Roaches, and then you have a nice self-contained roiding AND stealing fleet.

Oftentimes, using FI or CO fleets involves having a huge amount of said ship class, for flak. As with any race, Cathaar ships can be useful for providing this flak. Note: Pegasus init beats Harpy into, keep that in mind when using a CO fleet against Terran.

Somewhat as with the Hornets, if you can pick up some Daggers (Xan), you have a nice roiding/stealing combo fleet for CO.

Advantages of the self-contained fleet: A bit obvious. You can accomplish both with the same fleet, using only one fleetslot. And, if your target runs his fleet, you'll still get some roids.

[[Category:Strategy]]

PAN-related threads

2005-12-23T14:05:40Z

KingAlan:

Threads on the Planetarion forums relating to the introduction of PAN. (Planetarion:Next).

#Thread on the potential Galaxy and Cluster format (posted by [[Kal]])  http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=188909
#Exile/shuffle system: http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=188982
#The original announcement, 'The Future of Planetarion', http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=188258

[[Category:Forum_Threads]][[Category:PAN]]

Jolt

2005-12-23T14:03:41Z

KingAlan:

'''Jolt''' bought [[Planetarion]] following [[round 8]]. Their representative to the PA community is [[biffy]].

Jolt is a large British gaming company (http://www.jolt.co.uk) with several other ventures, selling clanservers among other things.

[[Category:Terminology]]

Jammyjim

2005-12-23T14:01:55Z

KingAlan:

Currently a member of [[PA Team]]. Jammyjim runs the Planetarion Forums.
Email him at: jammyjim@planetarion.com

[[Category:People]]

Mushroom

2005-12-23T14:01:06Z

KingAlan:

Currenlty a member of [[PA Team]]. Mushroom is in charge of IRC.

{{stub}}

[[Category:People]]

Therealmig

2005-12-23T14:00:11Z

KingAlan:

Currently a member of [[PA Team]]. therealmig is one of the coders.

{{stub}}

[[Category:People]]

Therealmig

2005-12-23T14:00:00Z

KingAlan:

Currently a member of [[PA team]]. therealmig is one of the coders.

{{stub}}

[[Category:People]]

Kloopy

2005-12-23T13:59:17Z

KingAlan:

This random, crazy, guy first played Planetarion back in Round 3. Since then he's coded a line or two for Planetarion. Briefly, this is what his career looks like: Initially, he worked on the Round 5/6 Portal being led by Beefy. Then he moved on to work on Alliance Hosting which ended up being integrated into the Planetarion game. After that he worked with [[Noctu]] on the Round 8/9 portal. Since then he has worked on the game code and helped design and implement one or two features. He is now paid bt [[Jolt]].

Perhaps the most infamous point in his time in the community is drinking 17 pints in a drinking competition with Genclay and falling off the Newbury Racecourse Grand Stand at i19: http://www.kloopy.com/fun/GrandStandStunt.avi

Currently a member of [[PA Team]].

[[Category:People]]

PAX

2005-12-23T13:57:05Z

KingAlan: add statement about PAN

Officially '''PAX''' is the name for Planetarion's [[Round 10]]. Due to the interim [[Round 9.5]] it was actually the 11th round. PAX introduced a large set of changes, including a whole new codebase and radically different gameplay. Many things are discussed in pre-PAX and PAX terms (the latter being the current style of game). For example, the pre-PAX [[combat]] engine was more complicated than the current engine. Combat also lasted up to 3 ticks in pre-PAX rounds.

Before PAX, player score was simply equal to his/her [[value]]. With PAX, [[XP]] (Experience Points) entered the picture. Now, score is determined by:

Score = (XP times 60) + Value.

PAX will be replaced by [[PAN]] after Round 15.

Cincinnatus

2005-12-23T13:47:27Z

KingAlan:

Cin is one of the current HC's of [[NoS]] and is on the planetarion support team. Rumour has it he used to be a high ranked top 100 player, but now he spends his days wasting away his hours trying to disguise his identity and being paranoid about his (allegedly dark) past catching up with him.

His interests include sheep and little boys.
[[Category:People]]

Registering With Channel Services

2005-12-23T13:44:58Z

KingAlan: fix error in wikicode

To register with channel services go to [http://www.netgamers.org www.netgamers.org] and use the registration link below the login boxes.

===Nick Registration===
To create a nick you first need to choose one to register. If you choose, it is possible to prevent other users using this nick (to do so, you need to enable [[NickServ]]). As such, it should be the nick that you intend to use - otherwise someone else may decide to use the nick you use and kick you off it. A nick is only yours if you register it. Nicks must be between 2 and 15 characters long, and only some characters are valid. Exact details are given during the registration process.

You will also need an e-mail address to register the nick with. NetGamers currently do not accept hotmail addresses due to previous problems with mails not getting through.

Once that's done you have to choose a [[Secret Answer|question/answer]]. This is used to prove that you're the account owner if you ever need to do anything unusual with the account, such as change the e-mail address it's registered to. Choosing a meaningful answer is '''very''' important. People have lost their accounts due to choosing one they couldn't remember.

Once you've filled in the information on the website an e-mail will be sent to you. This should arrive within two hours, if it doesn't contact someone in [[hashCservice|#cservice]]. When the mail arrives there'll be a link in it to activate your nick. When you click this link another e-mail is sent with your password in. This sometimes generates an error, but this error is a mistake and can happily be ignored.

===Login===
Once the password e-mail arrives you're ready to log in to your nick. When using P commands, such as the login command, which deal with passwords you have to use P@cservice.netgamers.org as P's nick. This is a security measure and is not neccessary for 'normal' commands. Therefore, to log in to P use:
/msg p@cservice.netgamers.org login ''username'' ''password''
With the username you registered and the password you received in your mail.

===Changing Your Password===
Once you're logged in you'll probably want to change your password to something more memorable. To do this use:
/msg p@cservice.netgamers.org newpass ''newpassword''
Once that's done you're ready to use P. If someone gives you [[Channel Access|access to their channel]] you'll be able to use some [http://www.netgamers.org/commands.php P commands] depending on the amount of access they give you. Alternativly, you might want to [[Registering A Channel|register your own channel]].

[[Category:IRC]]

PAN-related threads

2005-12-23T00:39:49Z

KingAlan:

Threads on the Planetarion forums relating to the introduction of PAN. (Planetarion:Next).

#Thread on the potential Galxy and Cluster format (posted by [[Kal]])  http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=188909
#Exile/shuffle system: http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=188982

[[Category:Forum_Threads]][[Category:PAN]]

PAN

2005-12-23T00:29:17Z

KingAlan:

#REDIRECT [[Category:PAN]]

Kal

2005-12-23T00:28:17Z

KingAlan:

'''Kal''' is a member of [[PAteam]] and is the Community Development Liasion. This means that he is the main point of contact between PAteam and the community on anything development related. He has also been involved with the now defunct Mentors team and alliances such as [[NoS]] and [[FAnG]] Reached the top 30 in r10 whilst playing with NoS.

Kal's forum signature:

----------------------
Kal

 Round 6-10 NoS member-->NoS junior HC
 Round 10.5 FAnG member
 Round 11 Mentor Team Manager and PATeam
 Round 12 Community Development Liaison - PATeam
 Round 13 Development Manager - PATeam
 Round 14 Development Manager - PATeam
 Round 15 Project Manager - PATeam

<nowiki>#planetarion</nowiki>
---------------

[[category:People]]

Kal

2005-12-23T00:27:39Z

KingAlan: fix error in wikicode

'''Kal''' is a member of [[PAteam]] and is the Community Development Liasion. This means that he is the main point of contact between PAteam and the community on anything development related. He has also been involved with the now defunct Mentors team and alliances such as [[NoS]] and [[FAnG]] Reached the top 30 in r10 whilst playing with NoS.

Kal's forum signature:

----------------------
Kal

Round 6-10 NoS member-->NoS junior HC
Round 10.5 FAnG member
Round 11 Mentor Team Manager and PATeam
Round 12 Community Development Liaison - PATeam
Round 13 Development Manager - PATeam
Round 14 Development Manager - PATeam
Round 15 Project Manager - PATeam

<nowiki>#planetarion</nowiki>
---------------

[[category:People]]

Kal

2005-12-23T00:27:05Z

KingAlan:

'''Kal''' is a member of [[PAteam]] and is the Community Development Liasion. This means that he is the main point of contact between PAteam and the community on anything development related. He has also been involved with the now defunct Mentors team and alliances such as [[NoS]] and [[FAnG]] Reached the top 30 in r10 whilst playing with NoS.

Kal's forum signature:

----------------------
Kal

Round 6-10 NoS member-->NoS junior HC
Round 10.5 FAnG member
Round 11 Mentor Team Manager and PATeam
Round 12 Community Development Liaison - PATeam
Round 13 Development Manager - PATeam
Round 14 Development Manager - PATeam
Round 15 Project Manager - PATeam

#planetarion
---------------

[[category:People]]

PAN-related threads

2005-12-23T00:26:09Z

KingAlan:

Threads on the Planetarion forums relating to the introduction of PAN. (Planetarion:Next).

#Thread on the potential Galxy and Cluster format (posted by [[Kal]])http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=188909

[[Category:Forum_Threads]][[Category:PAN]]

Emperor Alan

2005-12-23T00:21:07Z

KingAlan:

HOME CITY: Rochester, NY, USA

A new arrival to Planatarion, was referred to PA by a banner ad on NationStates.net in the middle of round 13. Has been playing ever since.

[[Round 13]] coordinates: 13:5:19
 Round 13 race: Terran
 Final Round 13 rank: 1539

13:5 was originally led by GC Nowiz, who downgraded his PA activity after getting a girlfriend. The post then passed to the MoD, Admiral Sam. Admiral Sam was also the founder and HC of Alan's Round 13 alliance, Nautilus. Alan found the original galaxy banner very amusing (mirrored here): [http://www.geocities.com/alangilfoy/graphics/sesame_street_hood.jpg]

Round 13 Havoc coordinates: I forgot them
 Round 13 Havoc race: Zikonian

First taste of ministership, I was the MoD at the start of Havoc and the MoW later in the round. Got pummelled when attempting to hold down a flag roid during the [[Capture The Flag]] Havoc.
------------------------------------------
[[Round 14]] coordinates: 11:9:7
 Round 14 race: Zikonian
 Round 14 rank: 1006
 Round 14 final stats:
 Size: 342
 Value: 646,779
 Score: 1,515,039
 XP: 14,471 (ranked 732 by XP)
 Score Rank among all Zikonian players: 282

Planned to join Round 14 at the beginning, but could not join until tick 154. This was due in part to the time that he returned from summer camp, combined with an email problem.

In round 14, I took the title of 'Emperor Alan III'. Decided to spring for paid membership, bought a credit somewhere around tick 650. MoD of Galaxy 11:9 for the last few weeks of the round. In the round 14 Havoc, I was actually in the top 10 for the first few ticks. (Round 14 Havoc did not require players to reregister, and Alan got a 'head start', logging in before amny other players. First atatck was a disaster, wher ethe Xan target completeed quite a

[[Round 15]] coordinates: (X:Y:Z)
 Round 15 race: Zikonian
 Highest rank: Rank #560 in tick 1044

Worst rank was #1450 (Tick 169). Began climbing the ranks from then on out. It was a 'bumpy ride' towards the start, but began to smooth out (less severe incomings) after a few hundred ticks. Climbed steadily towards the top 1000, and plateaud slightly below 600. Broke the 600 barrier around when the tick numbers started getting into the quadruple digits. However, got heavily pummeled (due to a VERY stupid mistake) around December 19th. Went right back down to about 950. Figured I'd salvage what was left of the round, at least recover some of my losses. Landed a 3-fleet attack on the morning of December 22nd, score went up about 400K, worth 80 rank places. :)
--------------------------------------

Currently a member of the [[Hidden Agenda]] alliance.

[[Category:People]]

User:KingAlan

2005-12-23T00:09:49Z

KingAlan:

KingAlan is totally cool.
Introduced the [[ships]] and [[PAN]] categories.

He's also an [[Emperor Alan|emperor]]. (Rulername is often 'Emperor Alan'.)
Started playing PA in [[round 13]], started as a PAWiki editor in round 14.

User:KingAlan

2005-12-23T00:09:04Z

KingAlan:

KingAlan is totally cool.
Introduced the [[ships]] and [[PAN]] categories.

He's also an [[Emperor Alan|emperor]]. (Rulername is often 'Emperor Alan'

User:KingAlan

2005-12-23T00:08:03Z

KingAlan:

KingAlan is totally cool.
Introduced the [[Category:Ships|ships]] and [[PAN]] categories.

He's also an [[Emperor Alan|emperor]]. (Rulername is often 'Emperor Alan'

PAN

2005-12-23T00:07:02Z

KingAlan: fix typo

Acronym standing for "Planetarion NEXT", a new breed of PA, to be introduced after orund 15.

[[Category:PAN]][[Category:Terminology]]

PAN

2005-12-23T00:06:44Z

KingAlan:

Acronym standing for "Planetarion NEXT", a new bree dof PA, to be introduced after orund 15.

[[Category:PAN]][[Category:Terminology]]

Category:PAN

2005-12-23T00:05:26Z

KingAlan:

PAN stands for "Planetarion: Next". PAN is a new form of Planetarion that will be introduced after [[round 15]]. As with the introduction of [[PAX]] in [[Round 10]], there will be a short, free round with the old code before the new set is introduced. There WILL be a [[Havoc]] round after the conclusion of round 15, like usual.

==Why PAN?==

#Opportunity to rewrite and smooth out code. The current code is, in many ways, "patched" with added features/bug fixes. Also, the new code will be in a language that [[Kloopy]], [[PA Team|PA team's]] head coder, likes better.
#Opportunity to design a sharper-looking user interface.
#A chance to implement feature suggestions that have accumulated over the last two rounds

Overall, PAN aims to bring the game 'up-to-date', and increase the playerbase. (which has the intention of making more money for [[Jolt]]).

Category:PAN

2005-12-22T23:58:27Z

KingAlan:

PAN stands for "Planetarion: Next". PAN is a new form of Planetarion that will be introduced after [[round 15]]

PAN

2005-12-22T23:51:01Z

KingAlan:

[[Category:PAN]]

Waves

2005-12-22T22:06:01Z

KingAlan:

== Description ==

'''Waves''' are used to gather information on other planets through the use of scans. You must have built at least one [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifier]] on the [[Construction]] page to be able to use scans. The more [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] you have, the better the chances of your scans getting through. Similarly, the more [[structures#Wave_Distorter|Wave Distorters]] you build, the lower the chance of scans getting through on your [[planet]].

For those who have played Planetarion before: [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] are no longer used up with successful scans, and there are no [[Asteroid]] Scans this round either. You can initiate [[roids]] directly from the [[Mining]] page.

Another new feature is the use of stored scans. Any successful scan your results will be stored (max. 50 shown on waves page) on the PA server, and can be accessed for the next 24 hours through the Waves Page. You can share the scans with other people by giving them the URL of the saved scan.

Initially, you will only be able to use Planet Scans. You can have your [[planet]]'s scientists develop new scans on the [[Research]] page.

== Scans available ==

=== Planet Scan ===
Returns general information about a [[planet]].
This scan costs 1000 of each [[resource]].
This is useful for the following things:

#To see how the target's asteroids are divvied up by resource type
#To see how many spare resources the target has (useful for finding targets for 'Hacking:Resource Transfers' covert ops)
#To see if you opponent built a lot of ships between launch and landing. (Planetscan around the launch time. Then planetscan a few ticks later. If resource counts drastically decreased, the player probably ordered a lot of ships in preparation for your attack.
#If you are unsure whether you'll be able to scan a target, planetscan them first. That way, if the scan doesn't work, you've used up a smaller amount of resources.

=== Surface Analysis Scan ===
Reveals the amount of [[constructions]] that a target [[planet]] has, broken down by type.
This scan costs 2000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:
#Finding out how many amps a target has (to see whether he'd be able to scan you)
#Finding out if the target has a large percentage of Security Centres (useful when scouting for covert ops targets)

=== Technology Analysis Scan ===
Identifies the [[Research]] Technology present on a target [[planet]].
This scan costs 3000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:

#Working out ETAs (the scan will tell you how many Space Travel techs the target has)
#Finding out what covert ops techs the target has
#Find out what classes of Ship Hulls that the target can build

Note: The Tech Scan is often mroe useful early in a round.

=== Unit Scan ===
This scan gives you an overview of all [[ships]] that a certain [[planet]] has.
This scan costs 4000 of each [[resource]].

#Unit scans are the most important scan type in the game, it seems- you would unitscan a potential target to see whether the ships he has fits well with what you plan on attacking with. Unit scan results are often plugged into [[battle calculation|battlecalcs]]. it is good advice to get a unit scan whenever you are attacking.
#Conversely, unit scans are also useful if you're being attacked- they can tell you what ships your attackers might have.

Unit scans are somewhat inaccurate, giving numbers between 20% more or less than the target actually has for each ship type. In game terns this is explained as 'random inference'. If such a variation might make a big difference in your plans, try doing 2 or 3 unitscans and then averaging out the results.

=== News Scan ===
The News Scan will try to intercept [[news]] transmissions at the target [[planet]]. Due
to the rate of news becoming available at another [[planet]], it will not show any news
entries from the last 4 [[tick]]s.
This scan costs 5000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:

#Checking whether your target has his fleets out (if you see recent 'launch' messages)
#Checking to see how active your target is, or when he is active.

=== Jumpgate Probe ===
This scan can only be used if you have a [[fleet]] travelling towards the [[planet]] you
are trying to scan. It will reveal any other [[fleet]]s travelling to the same planet,
both hostile and friendly.
This scan costs 6000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:

#Checking to see whether your target got defense. A jumpgate at ETA 4 or later will confirm whether the target got in-galxy defence, and a jumpgate at ETA 6 or later will confirm whether the target got alliance defense. (On this note, you might want to jumpgate a few minutes before the landtick, to see if the defense fleets pulled)

=== Fleet Analysis ===
This advanced version of the Unit Scan can only be used on another [[planet]] when
it has sent a [[fleet]] towards you. This will show the exact compsition of the [[fleet]] heading towards your [[planet]].
This scan costs 7000 of each [[resource]].

* A fleet analysis scan on a [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] player will fail, since Xan ships are 'cloaked' and thus immune to fleetscans. However- *unit* scans will still work on Xan ships.
* Note: if a Zikonian player has stolen some Xan ships, and included them with his attackfleet, the cloaking rule still applies. Subtract the total of ships that are shown in the fleetscan from the known size of the fleet to get the amount of Xan ships that are included, and the unitscan the player to see what those Xan ships might be.

== Scan Success ==

For a scan to work, you must have more Wave Amplifiers than your target has Wave Distorters. In mathematical terms,

The following statement must be correct:
your_amps - their_distorters >= 0

As a new r15 feature, you can scan any galmate or any member of your alliance, regardless of the number of Distorters.

===Alliance scanners===

Oftentimes, one or more members of an alliance are 'scanners'. They build a lot of Wave Amplifiers (meaning their scans would be more likely to succeeed) and focus their [[research]] towards the waves branch of the tech tree. 'Scanners' generally distribute scans to all alliance members. You can often request a specific scan from such a person via the alliance's IRC channel. As a new [[PAN]] feature, 'scanner' will be an official alliance position, and such a person's scans will be paid for out of the alliance fund as opposed to from that player's personal resource stash.

[[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Strategy]]

Waves

2005-12-22T21:52:23Z

KingAlan: /* Unit Scan */

== Description ==

'''Waves''' are used to gather information on other planets through the use of scans. You must have built at least one [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifier]] on the [[Construction]] page to be able to use scans. The more [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] you have, the better the chances of your scans getting through. Similarly, the more [[structures#Wave_Distorter|Wave Distorters]] you build, the lower the chance of scans getting through on your [[planet]].

For those who have played Planetarion before: [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] are no longer used up with successful scans, and there are no [[Asteroid]] Scans this round either. You can initiate [[roids]] directly from the [[Mining]] page.

Another new feature is the use of stored scans. Any successful scan your results will be stored (max. 50 shown on waves page) on the PA server, and can be accessed for the next 24 hours through the Waves Page. You can share the scans with other people by giving them the URL of the saved scan.

Initially, you will only be able to use Planet Scans. You can have your [[planet]]'s scientists develop new scans on the [[Research]] page.

== Scans available ==

=== Planet Scan ===
Returns general information about a [[planet]].
This scan costs 1000 of each [[resource]].
This is useful for the following things:

#To see how the target's asteroids are divvied up by resource type
#To see how many spare resources the target has (useful for finding targets for 'Hacking:Resource Transfers' covert ops)
#To see if you opponent built a lot of ships between launch and landing. (Planetscan around the launch time. Then planetscan a few ticks later. If resource counts drastically decreased, the player probably ordered a lot of ships in preparation for your attack.
#If you are unsure whether you'll be able to scan a target, planetscan them first. That way, if the scan doesn't work, you've used up a smaller amount of resources.

=== Surface Analysis Scan ===
Reveals the amount of [[constructions]] that a target [[planet]] has, broken down by type.
This scan costs 2000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:
#Finding out how many amps a target has (to see whether he'd be able to scan you)
#Finding out if the target has a large percentage of Security Centres (useful when scouting for covert ops targets)

=== Technology Analysis Scan ===
Identifies the [[Research]] Technology present on a target [[planet]].
This scan costs 3000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:

#Working out ETAs (the scan will tell you how many Space Travel techs the target has)
#Finding out what covert ops techs the target has
#Find out what classes of Ship Hulls that the target can build

Note: The Tech Scan is often mroe useful early in a round.

=== Unit Scan ===
This scan gives you an overview of all [[ships]] that a certain [[planet]] has.
This scan costs 4000 of each [[resource]].

#Unit scans are the most important scan type in the game, it seems- you would unitscan a potential target to see whether the ships he has fits well with what you plan on attacking with. Unit scan results are often plugged into [[battle calculation|battlecalcs]]. it is good advice to get a unit scan whenever you are attacking.

#Conversely, unit scans are also useful if you're being attacked- they can tell you what ships your attackers might have.

Unit scans are somewhat inaccurate, giving numbers between 20% more or less than the target actually has for each ship type. In game terns this is explained as 'random inference'. If such a variation might make a big difference in your plans, try doing 2 or 3 unitscans and then averaging out the results.

=== News Scan ===
The News Scan will try to intercept [[news]] transmissions at the target [[planet]]. Due
to the rate of news becoming available at another [[planet]], it will not show any news
entries from the last 4 [[tick]]s.
This scan costs 5000 of each [[resource]].

=== Jumpgate Probe ===
This scan can only be used if you have a [[fleet]] travelling towards the [[planet]] you
are trying to scan. It will reveal any other [[fleet]]s travelling to the same planet,
both [[hostile]] and [[friendly]].
This scan costs 6000 of each [[resource]].

=== Fleet Analysis ===
This advanced version of the Unit Scan can only be used towards another [[planet]] when
it has sent a hostile [[fleet]] towards you. This will show the [[fleet]] composition heading at
your [[planet]], although it will not be able to decrypt the fleet's orders.
This scan costs 7000 of each [[resource]]. Fleet Analyses are inaccurate to the same degree as Unit Scans.
* Please note you only get a list of ships a [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] player has in total, not what they have sent. A fleet analysis scan on a [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] player will fail.

== Scan Success ==

For a scan to work, you must have more Wave Amplifiers than your target has Wave Distorters. In mathematical terms,

The following statement must be correct:
your_amps - their_distorters >= 0

As a new r15 feature, you can scan any galmate or any member of your alliance, regardless of the number of Distorters.

===Alliance scanners===

Oftentimes, one or more members of an alliance are 'scanners'. They build a lot of Wave Amplifiers (meaning their scans would be more likely to succeeed) and focus their [[research]] towards the waves branch of the tech tree. 'Scanners' generally distribute scans to all alliance members. You can often request a specific scan from such a person via the alliance's IRC channel. As a new [[PAN]] feature, 'scanner' will be an official alliance position, and such a person's scans will be paid for out of the alliance fund as opposed to from that player's personal resource stash.

[[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Strategy]]

Research

2005-12-22T21:51:47Z

KingAlan:

== Description ==

'''Research''' costs nothing to do, and can be cancelled at no cost with the Cancel Research button at the top of the screen. However, doing so will waste all the time that has been spent so far on researching that technology.

Research takes longer the higher up the branch you are. For example, level 2 travel time takes 32 ticks, whereas the first travel time research takes 16. Research times can be modified by building the appropriate [[Constructions | Construction]] (Research Laboratories), by setting 'research' as a priority for [[Engineers]], or by capturing the Golden Research Asteroid (reduces time by 5%).

The research lab bonus is determined by what percentage of your constructions are research labs. The maximum such bonus is 20%.

The [[Waves| tech scan]] will reveal what technology your target has.

Research limits are the major method of restricting [[free accounts]].

== Available research areas ==

===Travel===

Improve the time it takes for your fleets to travel outside of your [[galaxy]]

===Constructions===

Improve your infrastructure so you can have more [[constructions]]

===Ships===

Improve your ship research , so you can have better ships

===Scanning===

Improve your [[waves]] research, so more types of [[scans]] are available.

===Core Mining===

An additional source of income for your planet

===Spying Techniques===

Improve your [[covert operations]] , so more types of operation are available

===Cargo transfers===

Improve your [[asteroid]] mining management systems, so you can handle the mining of more asteroids

== Advantages/Disadvantages ==

Certain races have an advantage / disadvantage when it comes to research, see the [[Race]] page for further information.

[[Category:Terminology]]

Waves

2005-12-22T21:44:55Z

KingAlan: /* Technology Analysis Scan */

== Description ==

'''Waves''' are used to gather information on other planets through the use of scans. You must have built at least one [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifier]] on the [[Construction]] page to be able to use scans. The more [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] you have, the better the chances of your scans getting through. Similarly, the more [[structures#Wave_Distorter|Wave Distorters]] you build, the lower the chance of scans getting through on your [[planet]].

For those who have played Planetarion before: [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] are no longer used up with successful scans, and there are no [[Asteroid]] Scans this round either. You can initiate [[roids]] directly from the [[Mining]] page.

Another new feature is the use of stored scans. Any successful scan your results will be stored (max. 50 shown on waves page) on the PA server, and can be accessed for the next 24 hours through the Waves Page. You can share the scans with other people by giving them the URL of the saved scan.

Initially, you will only be able to use Planet Scans. You can have your [[planet]]'s scientists develop new scans on the [[Research]] page.

== Scans available ==

=== Planet Scan ===
Returns general information about a [[planet]].
This scan costs 1000 of each [[resource]].
This is useful for the following things:

#To see how the target's asteroids are divvied up by resource type
#To see how many spare resources the target has (useful for finding targets for 'Hacking:Resource Transfers' covert ops)
#To see if you opponent built a lot of ships between launch and landing. (Planetscan around the launch time. Then planetscan a few ticks later. If resource counts drastically decreased, the player probably ordered a lot of ships in preparation for your attack.
#If you are unsure whether you'll be able to scan a target, planetscan them first. That way, if the scan doesn't work, you've used up a smaller amount of resources.

=== Surface Analysis Scan ===
Reveals the amount of [[constructions]] that a target [[planet]] has, broken down by type.
This scan costs 2000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:
#Finding out how many amps a target has (to see whether he'd be able to scan you)
#Finding out if the target has a large percentage of Security Centres (useful when scouting for covert ops targets)

=== Technology Analysis Scan ===
Identifies the [[Research]] Technology present on a target [[planet]].
This scan costs 3000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:

#Working out ETAs (the scan will tell you how many Space Travel techs the target has)
#Finding out what covert ops techs the target has
#Find out what classes of Ship Hulls that the target can build

Note: The Tech Scan is often mroe useful early in a round.

=== Unit Scan ===
This scan gives you an overview of all [[ships]] a certain [[planet]] has.
This scan costs 4000 of each [[resource]]. Unit scans are inaccurate, giving numbers between 20% more or less than the target actually has for each ship.

=== News Scan ===
The News Scan will try to intercept [[news]] transmissions at the target [[planet]]. Due
to the rate of news becoming available at another [[planet]], it will not show any news
entries from the last 4 [[tick]]s.
This scan costs 5000 of each [[resource]].

=== Jumpgate Probe ===
This scan can only be used if you have a [[fleet]] travelling towards the [[planet]] you
are trying to scan. It will reveal any other [[fleet]]s travelling to the same planet,
both [[hostile]] and [[friendly]].
This scan costs 6000 of each [[resource]].

=== Fleet Analysis ===
This advanced version of the Unit Scan can only be used towards another [[planet]] when
it has sent a hostile [[fleet]] towards you. This will show the [[fleet]] composition heading at
your [[planet]], although it will not be able to decrypt the fleet's orders.
This scan costs 7000 of each [[resource]]. Fleet Analyses are inaccurate to the same degree as Unit Scans.
* Please note you only get a list of ships a [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] player has in total, not what they have sent. A fleet analysis scan on a [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] player will fail.

== Scan Success ==

For a scan to work, you must have more Wave Amplifiers than your target has Wave Distorters. In mathematical terms,

The following statement must be correct:
your_amps - their_distorters >= 0

As a new r15 feature, you can scan any galmate or any member of your alliance, regardless of the number of Distorters.

===Alliance scanners===

Oftentimes, one or more members of an alliance are 'scanners'. They build a lot of Wave Amplifiers (meaning their scans would be more likely to succeeed) and focus their [[research]] towards the waves branch of the tech tree. 'Scanners' generally distribute scans to all alliance members. You can often request a specific scan from such a person via the alliance's IRC channel. As a new [[PAN]] feature, 'scanner' will be an official alliance position, and such a person's scans will be paid for out of the alliance fund as opposed to from that player's personal resource stash.

[[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Strategy]]

Research

2005-12-22T21:43:31Z

KingAlan: /* Description */

== Description ==

'''Research''' costs nothing to do, and can be cancelled at no cost with the Cancel Research button at the top of the screen. However, doing so will waste all the time that has been spent so far on researching that technology.

Research takes longer the higher up the branch you are. For example, level 2 travel time takes 32 ticks, whereas the first travel time research takes 16. Research times can be modified by building the appropriate [[Constructions | Construction]] (Research Laboratories), by setting 'research' as a priority for [[Engineers]], or by capturing the Golden Research Asteroid (reduces time by 5%).

The research lab bonus is determined by what percentage of your constructions are research labs. The maximum such bonus is 20%.

The [[Waves| tech scan]] will reveal what technology your target has.

== Available research areas ==

===Travel===

Improve the time it takes for your fleets to travel outside of your [[galaxy]]

===Constructions===

Improve your infrastructure so you can have more [[constructions]]

===Ships===

Improve your ship research , so you can have better ships

===Scanning===

Improve your [[waves]] research, so more types of [[scans]] are available.

===Core Mining===

An additional source of income for your planet

===Spying Techniques===

Improve your [[covert operations]] , so more types of operation are available

===Cargo transfers===

Improve your [[asteroid]] mining management systems, so you can handle the mining of more asteroids

== Advantages/Disadvantages ==

Certain races have an advantage / disadvantage when it comes to research, see the [[Race]] page for further information.

[[Category:Terminology]]

Research

2005-12-22T21:42:58Z

KingAlan: fix error in wikicode

== Description ==

'''Research''' costs nothing to do, and can be cancelled at no cost with the Cancel Research button at the top of the screen. However, doing so will waste all the time that has been spent on researching that technology.

Research takes longer the higher up the branch you are. For example, level 2 travel time takes 32 ticks, whereas the first travel time research takes 16. Research times can be modified by building the appropriate [[Constructions | Construction]] (Research Laboratories), by setting 'research' as a priority for [[Engineers]], or by capturing the Golden Research Asteroid (reduces time by 5%).

The research lab bonus is determined by what percentage of your constructions are research labs. The maximum such bonus is 20%.

The tech [[Waves|scan]] will reveal what technology your target has.

== Available research areas ==

===Travel===

Improve the time it takes for your fleets to travel outside of your [[galaxy]]

===Constructions===

Improve your infrastructure so you can have more [[constructions]]

===Ships===

Improve your ship research , so you can have better ships

===Scanning===

Improve your [[waves]] research, so more types of [[scans]] are available.

===Core Mining===

An additional source of income for your planet

===Spying Techniques===

Improve your [[covert operations]] , so more types of operation are available

===Cargo transfers===

Improve your [[asteroid]] mining management systems, so you can handle the mining of more asteroids

== Advantages/Disadvantages ==

Certain races have an advantage / disadvantage when it comes to research, see the [[Race]] page for further information.

[[Category:Terminology]]

Research

2005-12-22T21:42:25Z

KingAlan: /* Description */

== Description ==

'''Research''' costs nothing to do, and can be cancelled at no cost with the Cancel Research button at the top of the screen. However, doing so will waste all the time that has been spent on researching that technology.

Research takes longer the higher up the branch you are. For example, level 2 travel time takes 32 ticks, whereas the first travel time research takes 16. Research times can be modified by building the appropriate [[Constructions | Construction]] (Research Laboratories), by setting 'research' as a priority for [[Engineers]], or by capturing the Golden Research Asteroid (reduces time by 5%).

The research lab bonus is determined by what percentage of your constructions are research labs. The maximum such bonus is 20%.

The tech [[scan | Waves]] will reveal what technology your target has.

== Available research areas ==

===Travel===

Improve the time it takes for your fleets to travel outside of your [[galaxy]]

===Constructions===

Improve your infrastructure so you can have more [[constructions]]

===Ships===

Improve your ship research , so you can have better ships

===Scanning===

Improve your [[waves]] research, so more types of [[scans]] are available.

===Core Mining===

An additional source of income for your planet

===Spying Techniques===

Improve your [[covert operations]] , so more types of operation are available

===Cargo transfers===

Improve your [[asteroid]] mining management systems, so you can handle the mining of more asteroids

== Advantages/Disadvantages ==

Certain races have an advantage / disadvantage when it comes to research, see the [[Race]] page for further information.

[[Category:Terminology]]

Waves

2005-12-22T21:37:36Z

KingAlan: /* Surface Analysis Scan */

== Description ==

'''Waves''' are used to gather information on other planets through the use of scans. You must have built at least one [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifier]] on the [[Construction]] page to be able to use scans. The more [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] you have, the better the chances of your scans getting through. Similarly, the more [[structures#Wave_Distorter|Wave Distorters]] you build, the lower the chance of scans getting through on your [[planet]].

For those who have played Planetarion before: [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] are no longer used up with successful scans, and there are no [[Asteroid]] Scans this round either. You can initiate [[roids]] directly from the [[Mining]] page.

Another new feature is the use of stored scans. Any successful scan your results will be stored (max. 50 shown on waves page) on the PA server, and can be accessed for the next 24 hours through the Waves Page. You can share the scans with other people by giving them the URL of the saved scan.

Initially, you will only be able to use Planet Scans. You can have your [[planet]]'s scientists develop new scans on the [[Research]] page.

== Scans available ==

=== Planet Scan ===
Returns general information about a [[planet]].
This scan costs 1000 of each [[resource]].
This is useful for the following things:

#To see how the target's asteroids are divvied up by resource type
#To see how many spare resources the target has (useful for finding targets for 'Hacking:Resource Transfers' covert ops)
#To see if you opponent built a lot of ships between launch and landing. (Planetscan around the launch time. Then planetscan a few ticks later. If resource counts drastically decreased, the player probably ordered a lot of ships in preparation for your attack.
#If you are unsure whether you'll be able to scan a target, planetscan them first. That way, if the scan doesn't work, you've used up a smaller amount of resources.

=== Surface Analysis Scan ===
Reveals the amount of [[constructions]] that a target [[planet]] has, broken down by type.
This scan costs 2000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:
#Finding out how many amps a target has (to see whether he'd be able to scan you)
#Finding out if the target has a large percentage of Security Centres (useful when scouting for covert ops targets)

=== Technology Analysis Scan ===
Identifies the [[Research]] Technology present on a target [[planet]].
This scan costs 3000 of each [[resource]].

=== Unit Scan ===
This scan gives you an overview of all [[ships]] a certain [[planet]] has.
This scan costs 4000 of each [[resource]]. Unit scans are inaccurate, giving numbers between 20% more or less than the target actually has for each ship.

=== News Scan ===
The News Scan will try to intercept [[news]] transmissions at the target [[planet]]. Due
to the rate of news becoming available at another [[planet]], it will not show any news
entries from the last 4 [[tick]]s.
This scan costs 5000 of each [[resource]].

=== Jumpgate Probe ===
This scan can only be used if you have a [[fleet]] travelling towards the [[planet]] you
are trying to scan. It will reveal any other [[fleet]]s travelling to the same planet,
both [[hostile]] and [[friendly]].
This scan costs 6000 of each [[resource]].

=== Fleet Analysis ===
This advanced version of the Unit Scan can only be used towards another [[planet]] when
it has sent a hostile [[fleet]] towards you. This will show the [[fleet]] composition heading at
your [[planet]], although it will not be able to decrypt the fleet's orders.
This scan costs 7000 of each [[resource]]. Fleet Analyses are inaccurate to the same degree as Unit Scans.
* Please note you only get a list of ships a [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] player has in total, not what they have sent. A fleet analysis scan on a [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] player will fail.

== Scan Success ==

For a scan to work, you must have more Wave Amplifiers than your target has Wave Distorters. In mathematical terms,

The following statement must be correct:
your_amps - their_distorters >= 0

As a new r15 feature, you can scan any galmate or any member of your alliance, regardless of the number of Distorters.

===Alliance scanners===

Oftentimes, one or more members of an alliance are 'scanners'. They build a lot of Wave Amplifiers (meaning their scans would be more likely to succeeed) and focus their [[research]] towards the waves branch of the tech tree. 'Scanners' generally distribute scans to all alliance members. You can often request a specific scan from such a person via the alliance's IRC channel. As a new [[PAN]] feature, 'scanner' will be an official alliance position, and such a person's scans will be paid for out of the alliance fund as opposed to from that player's personal resource stash.

[[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Strategy]]

Waves

2005-12-22T21:35:25Z

KingAlan: added bits on how to use each scan type.

== Description ==

'''Waves''' are used to gather information on other planets through the use of scans. You must have built at least one [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifier]] on the [[Construction]] page to be able to use scans. The more [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] you have, the better the chances of your scans getting through. Similarly, the more [[structures#Wave_Distorter|Wave Distorters]] you build, the lower the chance of scans getting through on your [[planet]].

For those who have played Planetarion before: [[structures#Wave_Amplifier|Wave Amplifiers]] are no longer used up with successful scans, and there are no [[Asteroid]] Scans this round either. You can initiate [[roids]] directly from the [[Mining]] page.

Another new feature is the use of stored scans. Any successful scan your results will be stored (max. 50 shown on waves page) on the PA server, and can be accessed for the next 24 hours through the Waves Page. You can share the scans with other people by giving them the URL of the saved scan.

Initially, you will only be able to use Planet Scans. You can have your [[planet]]'s scientists develop new scans on the [[Research]] page.

== Scans available ==

=== Planet Scan ===
Returns general information about a [[planet]].
This scan costs 1000 of each [[resource]].
This is useful for the following things:

#To see how the target's asteroids are divvied up by resource type
#To see how many spare resources the target has (useful for finding targets for 'Hacking:Resource Transfers' covert ops)
#To see if you opponent built a lot of ships between launch and landing. (Planetscan around the launch time. Then planetscan a few ticks later. If resource counts drastically decreased, the player probably ordered a lot of ships in preparation for your attack.
#If you are unsure whether you'll be able to scan a target, planetscan them first. That way, if the scan doesn't work, you've used up a smaller amount of resources.

=== Surface Analysis Scan ===
Reveals the amount of [[constructions]] that a target [[planet]] has, broken down by type.
This scan costs 2000 of each [[resource]].

Useful for:
#Finding out how many amps a target has (to see whether they'd be able to scan you

=== Technology Analysis Scan ===
Identifies the [[Research]] Technology present on a target [[planet]].
This scan costs 3000 of each [[resource]].

=== Unit Scan ===
This scan gives you an overview of all [[ships]] a certain [[planet]] has.
This scan costs 4000 of each [[resource]]. Unit scans are inaccurate, giving numbers between 20% more or less than the target actually has for each ship.

=== News Scan ===
The News Scan will try to intercept [[news]] transmissions at the target [[planet]]. Due
to the rate of news becoming available at another [[planet]], it will not show any news
entries from the last 4 [[tick]]s.
This scan costs 5000 of each [[resource]].

=== Jumpgate Probe ===
This scan can only be used if you have a [[fleet]] travelling towards the [[planet]] you
are trying to scan. It will reveal any other [[fleet]]s travelling to the same planet,
both [[hostile]] and [[friendly]].
This scan costs 6000 of each [[resource]].

=== Fleet Analysis ===
This advanced version of the Unit Scan can only be used towards another [[planet]] when
it has sent a hostile [[fleet]] towards you. This will show the [[fleet]] composition heading at
your [[planet]], although it will not be able to decrypt the fleet's orders.
This scan costs 7000 of each [[resource]]. Fleet Analyses are inaccurate to the same degree as Unit Scans.
* Please note you only get a list of ships a [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] player has in total, not what they have sent. A fleet analysis scan on a [[Race#Xandathrii|Xandathrii]] player will fail.

== Scan Success ==

For a scan to work, you must have more Wave Amplifiers than your target has Wave Distorters. In mathematical terms,

The following statement must be correct:
your_amps - their_distorters >= 0

As a new r15 feature, you can scan any galmate or any member of your alliance, regardless of the number of Distorters.

===Alliance scanners===

Oftentimes, one or more members of an alliance are 'scanners'. They build a lot of Wave Amplifiers (meaning their scans would be more likely to succeeed) and focus their [[research]] towards the waves branch of the tech tree. 'Scanners' generally distribute scans to all alliance members. You can often request a specific scan from such a person via the alliance's IRC channel. As a new [[PAN]] feature, 'scanner' will be an official alliance position, and such a person's scans will be paid for out of the alliance fund as opposed to from that player's personal resource stash.

[[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Strategy]]

Waves

2005-12-22T21:17:08Z

KingAlan: /* Description */

Waves

2005-12-22T21:13:47Z

KingAlan: /* Scan Success */

Exception

2005-12-19T02:38:44Z

KingAlan:

An exception can be applied for to tell the [[multihunter]] team that more than one account is going to be played from a location for a certain period of time. Reasons can range from multiple members of a family wanting the play the game, to accessing the game from a shared connection at school or work. They can also be applied for for short periods of time such as covering weekends where groups of players get together socially but may want to keep an eye on their planets.

An exception does not guarantee invulnerability to accusations of account sharing or multiing, but it is generally agreed that if factors such as location are declared before they become a problem that they are more likely to be genuine.

Planets linked by an exception are also forbidden from interacting with each other which forces them to be played as independent planets.

Exceptions have been down for all of r15.

[[Category:Terminology]]

Outflak

2005-12-19T02:31:07Z

KingAlan:

outflak-
To send enough ships of a certain class to outstrech an opponent's ability to target that shipclass.

Example usage: "I was attacking a Cathaar target, and I set enough Theives and Cutlasses to outflak his Vipers."

[[Category:Terminology]][[Category:Strategy]]

Wyvern

2005-12-19T02:27:52Z

KingAlan:

The Wyvern is a jewel of the current Terran fleet. It's a Battleship that targets Frigates.
However, it is vulnerable to the Zikonian [[Clipper]], since the Clipper is FR-BS and it has a better [[initiative]]. To counter this, you'd have to build a whole bunch of Wyverns, in order to [[outflak]] the Clippers. On this note, it may help to build Dragons/Leviathans aswell.

==Stats==

Here is the 'Wyvern' line from the r15 shipstats-
Wyvern Battleship Frigate Norm 9 510 270 36,000 27,000 27,000 56 30

Fleet Strategy

2005-12-19T02:22:02Z

KingAlan: /* Fleet Catch */ fixed typo

This page has been adapted from the [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]], Specifically [http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=187541 This Thread]. Special thanks to Monroe for starting it off and organising the thread, and to all those who contributed to the discussion.

The purpose of this thread is to outline the various types of fashions that players use their fleet to achieve certain objectives, ie 'Fleet Strategy'. It also tries to identify these various strategies with common names, so everyone speaks the same language when describing what they are trying to do. Additionally, it provides an example of the strategy to make it clear and apparant what was meant, and finally it anticipates possible or frequent counter move(s) that the defender may reply with.

== Basic Fleet Strategy ==

=== Send, recall, resend ===

''Description:'' This strategy is designed to strain your target's alliance defence such that a gap opens, which you can then exploit. Launch an attack, jumpgate scan the attack near the end of the first tick to see if there is defence (ie at xx:55), if there is defence recall right at the end of the tick (ie, xx:59) and resend the following tick. The advantage of this frequently used tactic is that it soaks up universal defence, and gives you a second opportunity to attack.

''Counter:'' The best counter to this strategy is active defense, rather then passive defense. Having defenders on at the end of the first tick to recall can be very useful. Another good counter strategy is to organize an attack on your would be attacker that will require him to keep his attack fleet home to defend. Then use the same tactic back at him, ie jpg at the end of the first tick and recall if he got defence.

=== Single class attack ===

''Description:'' Send only one class of ships on any given attack, thereby limiting which of your targets ships can target your fleet. This is especially useful since the advent of PAX (the current system), where ships only have one target class, and thus by sending only a single type of ship you are able to explot the weaknesses in your enemy's targeting spectrum (often weaknesses are due to race, such as Terrans are poor against anti CO (Cathaar CO), and other times they are from player's choice (a dislike of Tarantulas, for example).

''Counter:'' No specific counter, just rely on the right type of defence.

=== Fake Defence ===

''Description:'' When a friend has incomming and you have the correct type of ships, but those ships are not home send a different type of ship instead in the exact quantity you have of the ship that would be effective. If the attacker does a jump gate he will not know that the defense is fake and will have to assume it is real and will therefor recall.

''Counter:'' No known counter, other then landing anyway and seeing what shows up. If the defense is from outside the target gal you CAN do a news scan at eta 1 and see what the initial eta of the defense was, if the defense eta is different then what it should have been (ie 7 because the fake def is FI rather then 8 because the real def would have been FR) then you know the def is fake. In my personal experiance however this rarely is useful.

== Intermediate Fleet Strategy ==

=== Disguised Fleet Attack (aka Fake Attack)===

''Description:'' Similar to Fake Defence, send a fleet of one class disguised as a fleet of another class. For example, sending a bunch of FR that have the same number of ships as your DE's, then later send your DE's faked as BS (for terrans). Defender will think the first wave is DEs and send anti DE, defender will think second wave is BS and send anti BS, therefore your DE will get through unharmed.

''Counter:'' Fleet scans can tell the difference, as long as you don't get blocked. Otherwise calc your home fleet against the attackers potential attack fleets. Using the above example, if you have pretty good BS defense, but terrible DE defense, simply assume both incomming fleets are DE and defend accordingly. Otherwise massive overkill on def ussually works, but is rarely a good option.

=== Mutli Race Attack ===

''Description:'' This tactic involves finding a friend of another race to attack with. Because races have different advantages and weaknesses, combining two races together can sometimes be a very powerful attack fleet which is nearly impossible to defend against. One classic example would be cath and zik CR/BS combo attack. Essentially the caths freeze the attackers, and the zik's clean up. Another great example is the 1-2 punch of zik and terran BS attacks, they target most classes and are hard to stop. Essentially any two races can combine at some level, but which combos are best depends on the current ship stats.

''Counter:'' If the attack is done right there is no good counter, other then overwhelming defense. If you are lucky you can find a ship that the attackers don't target, and that does target the attackers, but if the attackers are smart, this isn't really an option.

=== Defence Specialisation (aka Fleet Swapping)===

''Description:'' This is where you and your mates exploit the low ETA advantage of your Galaxy in order to make the best use of your ships, and use the strengths of one person's fleet to cover the weaknesses of another person's fleet. For example, if you have alot of anti CR and your mate(s) have alot of anti BA, and you have BA incs and they have CR incs, you send your fleet to defend a mate, they send their fleet(s) to defend you. It is especially effective if also combined with fake defence, ie you fake another anti CR fleet to another of your gal mates, thus potentially covering two incs with only half the ships.

''Counter:'' The obvious counter if you think your target is likely to swap in-gal def or has a previous tendency to do so, is to send both a CR fleet ''and'' a BA fleet at him - that way if he defends his gal mate he leaves himself wide open.

== Advanced Fleet Strategy ==
=== Fleet Exchange ===

''Description:'' Have two attack fleets of different ship classes, with different eta's, and the same size. Launching the higher eta fleet with fleet name "alpha." Right at the end of the first tick recall the high eta fleet and send the lower eta fleet. Rename the lower eta fleet to Alpha. If you are lucky (and I've seen it work) they will assume it's the same fleet and not rescan the attacker. Then all defense that is sent will be worthless

''Counter:'' Make sure you do an FA scan after the first tick to verify the fleet composition. Also make sure you have at least some defense against the attackers other possible fleet.

=== Fleet Catch ===
''Description:'' This tactic has to be carefully planned and executed to be successful, ussually with multiple attackers, sometimes with as many as 20 or 30 attackers. The idea is to find a target who is about to land his fleet on a target, and time your attack so that your attack will land the same tick that his fleet will return home. The concept here is to make it so he is unable to run away from your overwhelming attack, not to steal roids, but roids are a bonus. There are two strategies with Fleet catches, either to steal as much of the targets fleet as possible, or kill as much of the targets fleet as possible. In order to kill as much as possible the tactic is simple, just send a lot of ships! A good fleet catch however will endevor to steal, rather then kill. To accomplish this ussually a gigantic attack fleet is sent, and once the attack is certain to succeed (ie no defenders left) most of the attack fleet recalls and allows the ziks and maybe some caths to land to maximize the ships that can be stolen.

''Counter:'' Suprisingly there are two counters to this tactic. One is rather obvious, simply find a ton of defence! The other counter is a little less obvious. If you suspect someone is trying to fleet catch you, shortly before you land on your target have a jumpgate taken of ''your'' planet. If you see a bunch of hostile fleets on prelaunch timed to catch your returning fleet, simply recall your attacking fleet before you land and mess up their timing. You won't get any roids, but you will keep your ships. Most fleet catches will recall as soon as they see they have missed your fleet, and usually you'll even get to keep your own roids. Also note that it often take ''alot'' of ships in order to pull off a successful fleet catch attempt, and in doing so the attackers make themselves vulnerable at home - if you cant stop the Fleet Catch, at least get as many of your allaincemates to steal roids off the attackers to minimise the damage done to your alliance overall.

''Counter-Counter Fleet Catching:'' Sometimes a really organised Fleet Catch will exist where attackers launch the tick before someone lands, such that they are already inbound when you would have you mate JGP you in the 'Counter' section above, in addition to the original Fleet Catch - such that whether you recall now or land anyway you still die. This is known as unfortunate.

[[Category:Strategy]]
[[Category:Terminology]]

New Player Manual

2005-12-19T02:18:10Z

KingAlan: /* Galaxy: x,y */

== Introduction ==

Little experience in [[Planetarion]]? You've come to the right place.

Browse around before the beginning of the round to gain an advantage about the inner workings of the game.

=== A Relaxing Browser Game For The Whole Family ===

In [[Planetarion]] you compete with thousands of other players over a 2 month period of non-stop gaming. Activity, skill, endurance and a solid [[alliance]] are the building blocks of a winner in this game. Use of [[IRC]], while not required to play the game, is extremely important to communicate between other players and to succeed in the game.

At the beginning you construct [[structures]] and initiate [[asteroids]]. You will gain resources by mining these asteroids. With these [[resource|resources]] you are able to construct 6 different [[Ship_Class|classes of ship]]. Two classes are capable of [[Pods|stealing asteroids]] from enemy planets while another is capable of bombarding enemy planets ruthlessly destroying their [[structure]]s.
There are 4 [[race]]s to choose from, and each is equipped with 12 unique ships.

Planets are ranked by their [[score]]. The planet with the highest score wins the game.

Each planet (including your own!) is grouped into [[galaxy|galaxies]]. Planetarion is a turn-based game with turns being called a [[tick]]. In standard rounds, there is one hour between ticks.

Rounds are generally announced 2-3 weeks before the ticks (turns) start. Around this time signups are opened allowing everyone to register their very own planet. When the game starts, everyone is placed in [[Protection|protection mode]] and temporarily grouped into large galaxies. At tick 36, planets are "[[shuffle|shuffled]]" and placed into their true starting galaxy using a highly intelligent AI. If your planet is unpaid you are placed randomly otherwise you can form [[buddy pack]]s with friends, which can contain up to 5 people.

=== The First 72 Hours: Under Protection ===

During the first 72 [[tick]]s of the game your planet is under [[protection]]. During this time, get used to the game, and as often as possible visit the mining page to initiate asteroids, the research page to start new researches and the construction page to start new constructions.

It is recommended to have some ships built by [[tick]] 82, as that is when the first attacks will be able to reach your planet. In the beginning of the game it is nearly impossible to stop attacks on your planet. As such, it is preferable to build mainly [[Pods#Astropod|pods]] and send them out to attack others.

== Race: Killing, Freezing or Stealing? ==

An all-round impacting choice is your race: [[Race|Terran]], [[Race|Cathaar]], [[Race|Xandathrii]] or [[Race|Zikonian]]. [[Race|Terran]] is suggested as the starting race, as the ships have high armour and so are harder to kill.
Read about the races in the [[Round_14#Guides| Race Guides]].

== Planet: x,y,z ==

=== Engineering ===

A good starting setup is [[Research]] (1st), [[Mining]] (2nd) and [[Construction]] (3rd). Make sure you set your Engineering Priorities '''before''' starting a Research or Construction.

=== Research ===

The undisputed first choice for research is [[Improved Resource Handling]], so please click the ''initate'' button next to this research.

This technology branch allows you to mine more of the [[asteroids]] than you have collected around your planet. This is because you can "initate" as many asteroids as you wish, but you can only recieve resources from those you are able to, depending on your resource handling ability. All of the more experienced players spend the first 60 or so [[tick]]s initiating asteroids in the Mining screen, but shortly after protection ends it is far more cost-effective to attack other players to gain roids (this also gets you [[XP]] - see [[combat]] for more information).

Just a quick note about the number of ticks beside the Research and the Construction items below. Those numbers represent the 'base' amount of time it will take to complete this research, however your Race, your Engineering Setup and the number of Research Labs you have ''will'' significantly reduce this time - indeed you should be able to fit the Infrastructure Upgrade research before protection is over, and perhaps HCT 3 as well.

'''Starting Research'''
# Improved Resource Handling - 16 Ticks to complete
# Heavy Cargo Transfers II - 24
# Fighter Class Hulls - 24
# Jumpgate - 16
# ''**End of Protection**''
# Infrastructure Upgrade - 16
# Heavy Cargo Transfers III - 24
# Warpgate - 32
# Advanced Core Extraction - 24
# Frigate Class Hulls
# Heavy Cargo Transfers IV - 48
Then, about this time you'll need to try and get as much Scan technology as you can whilst keeping up with your roids (at least until Unit scans)

The things to research least if you are a free account are the [[Waves|scans]] and [[Covert_Operations|covert ops]], as they're heavily limited and there's nothing worthwhile available until you upgrade.

=== Construction ===

The most beneficial construction to start with is the [[Research lab]]. This increases your research speed by up to 20% (when 1 in 5 or more of your constructions are [[research lab]]s). To build ships you need a factory and the appropriate research.

'''Starting Constructions'''
# Research Lab - 12 ticks
# Refinery - 12 (the number of which Refinery depends on your race. If you are Terran, focus on Metal Refineries as your ships cost alot of Metal. Cathaar = Crystal and Zikonian = Eonium. Eonium is no longer fuel, but is as important as Metal and Crystal - so keep it in mind ).
# Refinery - 12
# Refinery - 12
# Light Factory - 12
# Research Lab - 12
# ''**End of Protection**''
# Refinery - 12
# Refinery - 12
# Amplifier - 12
# Refinery - 12
# Research Lab - 12
# Medium Factory - 12

=== Mining ===

Mining is one of the important screens (together with research and construction) at the beginning of the round.

When you first sign up, you have 5000 of each resource. This is enough to buy 3 of each type of asteroid in the "Mining" screen. Paid accounts have 10000 of each resource, and so can afford 6 of each roid type.

To initiate asteroids, put the numbers in the corresponding boxes beside the three different resource types and click ''initiate''.

'''Note:''' You want to be the biggest planet you can be. You initiate asteroids at the beginning of the game as that's the most cost effective way of gaining asteroids, and you need asteroids to give you more resources. However, after 100-150 initiated asteroids of a specific resource the most cost effective way to gain more is by building ships that can steal asteroids and attacking other planets (you also gain [[XP]] for doing this, which adds to your planets [[score]]). Therefore, while you use this page a lot in the first 5-10 days, afterwards you won't need it much unless exchanging resources with others.

== Galaxy: x,y ==

A [[galaxy]] allows its own planets to launch ships to defend each other with a low [[ETA]]. In the galaxy status you can see details on friendly and hostile fleet movement. All planetats will be able to see incoming fleets, but only upgraded planets will be able to see outgoing fleets.

=== Galaxy Politics ===

Each planet can vote for a player they want to be the overall leader of the galaxy, called the [[Galactic Commander]]. When a player has the most votes, he or she is automatically appointed the role of GC. The galaxy screen shows the current galaxy staff setup.

==== Minister Of Development (yellow) ====

The MoD is responsible for the Galaxy Fund. He can donate funds to the smallest planets in the galaxy (the planets with below-average score). He can also regulate trade within the fund: at any time the MoD can choose to forbid or allow trade of one or more (or even all!) types of resources.

==== Minister of Communication (light blue) ====

The MoC is the spokesperson for a galaxy: he can send message to all other MoCs in a certain Cluster, or to all members within the Galaxy itself. Another task of the MoC is to keep the Galaxy Forums tidy.

==== Minister of War (red) ====

The Minister of war is responsible for arranging attacks and defences in a galaxy. He's generally the one, together with the Minister of Communication, that organises contact information on the forums and overview for defence. He may often also look for galaxies for his own galaxy to attack.

'''Note:'''
Not all galaxies follow these ideas. Some planets play with friends and alliances as much or more than their own galaxy mates (especially for attacking). Therefore it's a good idea to also have an alliance.

The bottom line for defence and organisation is your galaxy, and generally "galaxy mates" know each other quite well by the end of the round. Communication is essential, which is why many galaxies use a form of communication such as [[IRC]] where they have their own private channel to discuss and organise galaxy issues. Mobile phones are often also used in emergencies, such as when the galaxy is being heavily attacked (although giving your mobile phone out is always optional).

It's generally up to the galaxy how much they play for fun and how active they are, as in any galaxy there's some people on 10 hours a day and some only 2-4 hours. As there's only a limited amount of people in a galaxy, some of the more serious players are determined to get active players, but even the smaller less active galaxies often have a certain amount of fun.

== Alliance: 1st line of support ==

Beside galaxies, your main line of defence is [[alliance|alliances]]. Alliances are groups of players that agree to defend and perform coordinated attacks together.

=== Are Alliances Made Of Green Men And Cheese? ===

Alliances have several ranks within them.

The [[High Commander]]s are in charge of the alliance. There's no set limit for how many people are in this most powerful position, but generally there's between 3 and 5 who are in ultimate authority.

[[Officer]]s sort out the alliance attacks and defences, and are often responsible (together with some of the HCs) for the technical responsibility of the alliance. Some are in charge of intelligence, internal and external affairs, and even "scanners" - those devoted to scanning for the alliance.

Normal members (aka. pe0ns) help with duties within the alliance, but mostly are required to be as active as possible and participate in alliance attacks and defences. Some alliances give points for attacking and defending, so they can keep track of how helpful alliance members are. Alliances generally are organised on IRC and often have their own forums and/or IRC servers to increase privacy and communication ability. Some alliances have a "minimum IRC activity time" together or instead of a points system - inactive players don't pull their weight in the long term and so often require a lot more defence than they give. At the beginning of the round, many alliances would prefer players with less experience but that are online 8 or more hours a day than experienced players that won't be on more than 2 hours a day.

=== How Do I Get An Alliance? ===

Most alliances require [[IRC|IRC]] activity. The established alliances require vouches (people already in the alliance knowing you and saying you're a good player), but many just interview and require a minimum activity time. A list of all the Round 14 alliances playing can be found on the [[:Category:Alliances:Round_14|Round14 alliances page]]. New players should look in the [http://pirate.planetarion.com/forumdisplay.php?f=37 Alliance Recruitment Forum].

== Combat ==

This is a space war game in which [[combat]] is an important part.

=== Ships, Classes and Targets ===

Ship from different [[Ship_Class|classes]] can be categorized into their respective [[Ship_Type|primary functionalities]].

=== Inititative ===

[[Initiative]] defines the order that ships fire in battle. Generally, [[Race|Cathaar]] EMP ships fire first, then [[Race|Xandathrii]] ships, then [[Race|Terran]] and [[Race|Zikonian]] kill ships and [[Race|Cathaar]] kill ships, and then the astropods, and then steal ships, and then structure killers.

=== Arm/Cost and Dam/Cost explained ===

In the [http://game.planetarion.com/stats.pl?page=33 ship statistics] these are, in some ways, more important than the armour, damage and cost columns themselves. They summarize these columns by saying, per cost, how much armour or damage the ship does. This means you can quickly compare ships no matter their different costs. looking at Terran, you can see their "Arm/Cost" column is much bigger than the other races. [[Race|Cathaar]] and [[Race|Xandathrii]] have bigger "Dam/Cost" columns, but keep in mind that 6 of the [[Race|Cathaar]] ships only stun their opponents (the ships that are listed as EMP).

==== Attacking ====

Look around for targets you can handle, unit scan, produce a [[battle calculation]] and attack. Remember to send enough [[pods]] to capture 25% of the targets [[asteroid|roid]]s, which have an armour of 50. Get a News scan at [[ETA]] 1 or a Jump Gate Proble scan between [[ETA]]1-4 to be aware of any defence the planet might have obtained. It is advisable to watch your targets resource spending during the attack not to be caught unaware of ships coming out of production. The [http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=185199 How to Attack] thread on the [Strategy] Forum outlines a procedure for attacking, however it does include some more advanced [[:Category:Terminology|Terminology]] so it may be initially confusing, however it is still a good viable guide. Furthermore, a description of the various [[Fleet Strategy]] is also available - it outlines common names for the various tactics involved, provides an example, and identifies counter-strategy too. Again, it uses complex [[:Category:Terminology|Terminology]] and so it is something to work towards :).

==== Defending ====

When under attack several planets will receive defense from their alliance. However, those without an [[alliance]] have to rely on the planets within their galaxy (or a buddy within the cluster) to receive defence. In-galaxy defence is usually coordinated within the galaxy's [[IRC]] channel.

If you have just started out, you will likely be uncovered, meaning you do not have enough ships in defensive to stop the attacker from taking a share of your roids.

Sending random ships for defence is counter-productive as ships target a certain [[ship class]]. Unit scanning the attacker and producing a [[battle calculation]] based on an estimation of what the attacker sent should always be done before any defence is done.

== Troubleshooting ==

=== Can't Login? ===

* Check that computer time is set correctly
* Clear cookies, cache and restart browser.
* Gamepage does not load, while others do? Restart internet connection or your computer.

=== Exceptions ===

If you play from the same place as someone else in your family, it is strongly recommended you apply for an [[exception]].

Loging in from different url's :

http://p45.planetarion.com/

http://round15.planetarion.com/

http://struggleforsupremacy.planetarion.com/

== Further Help ==

[[Sovereign]], a Planetarion [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]] [[Moderator]] is able and very willing to help players who are new, uncertain on where to go or what to do next, or to provide advice and assistance on a whole range of topics in Planetarion. The [[HashStrategy|#Strategy]] Channel on the Netgamers [[IRC]] Network (see [[Connecting To IRC]]) is ideal to drop by, or you can make a post on the [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]] for a more in-depth answer. [[Sovereign]] also maintains other Planetarion Resources, some of which can be found in the [http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=169297 Useful Links] (Help Guides section) thread on the [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]].

[[Category:Strategy]]

New Player Manual

2005-12-19T02:15:18Z

KingAlan: /* A Relaxing Browser Game For The Whole Family */

== Introduction ==

Little experience in [[Planetarion]]? You've come to the right place.

Browse around before the beginning of the round to gain an advantage about the inner workings of the game.

=== A Relaxing Browser Game For The Whole Family ===

In [[Planetarion]] you compete with thousands of other players over a 2 month period of non-stop gaming. Activity, skill, endurance and a solid [[alliance]] are the building blocks of a winner in this game. Use of [[IRC]], while not required to play the game, is extremely important to communicate between other players and to succeed in the game.

At the beginning you construct [[structures]] and initiate [[asteroids]]. You will gain resources by mining these asteroids. With these [[resource|resources]] you are able to construct 6 different [[Ship_Class|classes of ship]]. Two classes are capable of [[Pods|stealing asteroids]] from enemy planets while another is capable of bombarding enemy planets ruthlessly destroying their [[structure]]s.
There are 4 [[race]]s to choose from, and each is equipped with 12 unique ships.

Planets are ranked by their [[score]]. The planet with the highest score wins the game.

Each planet (including your own!) is grouped into [[galaxy|galaxies]]. Planetarion is a turn-based game with turns being called a [[tick]]. In standard rounds, there is one hour between ticks.

Rounds are generally announced 2-3 weeks before the ticks (turns) start. Around this time signups are opened allowing everyone to register their very own planet. When the game starts, everyone is placed in [[Protection|protection mode]] and temporarily grouped into large galaxies. At tick 36, planets are "[[shuffle|shuffled]]" and placed into their true starting galaxy using a highly intelligent AI. If your planet is unpaid you are placed randomly otherwise you can form [[buddy pack]]s with friends, which can contain up to 5 people.

=== The First 72 Hours: Under Protection ===

During the first 72 [[tick]]s of the game your planet is under [[protection]]. During this time, get used to the game, and as often as possible visit the mining page to initiate asteroids, the research page to start new researches and the construction page to start new constructions.

It is recommended to have some ships built by [[tick]] 82, as that is when the first attacks will be able to reach your planet. In the beginning of the game it is nearly impossible to stop attacks on your planet. As such, it is preferable to build mainly [[Pods#Astropod|pods]] and send them out to attack others.

== Race: Killing, Freezing or Stealing? ==

An all-round impacting choice is your race: [[Race|Terran]], [[Race|Cathaar]], [[Race|Xandathrii]] or [[Race|Zikonian]]. [[Race|Terran]] is suggested as the starting race, as the ships have high armour and so are harder to kill.
Read about the races in the [[Round_14#Guides| Race Guides]].

== Planet: x,y,z ==

=== Engineering ===

A good starting setup is [[Research]] (1st), [[Mining]] (2nd) and [[Construction]] (3rd). Make sure you set your Engineering Priorities '''before''' starting a Research or Construction.

=== Research ===

The undisputed first choice for research is [[Improved Resource Handling]], so please click the ''initate'' button next to this research.

This technology branch allows you to mine more of the [[asteroids]] than you have collected around your planet. This is because you can "initate" as many asteroids as you wish, but you can only recieve resources from those you are able to, depending on your resource handling ability. All of the more experienced players spend the first 60 or so [[tick]]s initiating asteroids in the Mining screen, but shortly after protection ends it is far more cost-effective to attack other players to gain roids (this also gets you [[XP]] - see [[combat]] for more information).

Just a quick note about the number of ticks beside the Research and the Construction items below. Those numbers represent the 'base' amount of time it will take to complete this research, however your Race, your Engineering Setup and the number of Research Labs you have ''will'' significantly reduce this time - indeed you should be able to fit the Infrastructure Upgrade research before protection is over, and perhaps HCT 3 as well.

'''Starting Research'''
# Improved Resource Handling - 16 Ticks to complete
# Heavy Cargo Transfers II - 24
# Fighter Class Hulls - 24
# Jumpgate - 16
# ''**End of Protection**''
# Infrastructure Upgrade - 16
# Heavy Cargo Transfers III - 24
# Warpgate - 32
# Advanced Core Extraction - 24
# Frigate Class Hulls
# Heavy Cargo Transfers IV - 48
Then, about this time you'll need to try and get as much Scan technology as you can whilst keeping up with your roids (at least until Unit scans)

The things to research least if you are a free account are the [[Waves|scans]] and [[Covert_Operations|covert ops]], as they're heavily limited and there's nothing worthwhile available until you upgrade.

=== Construction ===

The most beneficial construction to start with is the [[Research lab]]. This increases your research speed by up to 20% (when 1 in 5 or more of your constructions are [[research lab]]s). To build ships you need a factory and the appropriate research.

'''Starting Constructions'''
# Research Lab - 12 ticks
# Refinery - 12 (the number of which Refinery depends on your race. If you are Terran, focus on Metal Refineries as your ships cost alot of Metal. Cathaar = Crystal and Zikonian = Eonium. Eonium is no longer fuel, but is as important as Metal and Crystal - so keep it in mind ).
# Refinery - 12
# Refinery - 12
# Light Factory - 12
# Research Lab - 12
# ''**End of Protection**''
# Refinery - 12
# Refinery - 12
# Amplifier - 12
# Refinery - 12
# Research Lab - 12
# Medium Factory - 12

=== Mining ===

Mining is one of the important screens (together with research and construction) at the beginning of the round.

When you first sign up, you have 5000 of each resource. This is enough to buy 3 of each type of asteroid in the "Mining" screen. Paid accounts have 10000 of each resource, and so can afford 6 of each roid type.

To initiate asteroids, put the numbers in the corresponding boxes beside the three different resource types and click ''initiate''.

'''Note:''' You want to be the biggest planet you can be. You initiate asteroids at the beginning of the game as that's the most cost effective way of gaining asteroids, and you need asteroids to give you more resources. However, after 100-150 initiated asteroids of a specific resource the most cost effective way to gain more is by building ships that can steal asteroids and attacking other planets (you also gain [[XP]] for doing this, which adds to your planets [[score]]). Therefore, while you use this page a lot in the first 5-10 days, afterwards you won't need it much unless exchanging resources with others.

== Galaxy: x,y ==

A [[galaxy]] allows its own planets to launch ships to defend each other with a low [[ETA]]. In the galaxy status you can see details on friendly and hostile fleet movement (only paid accounts see outgoing fleets).

=== Galaxy Politics ===

Each planet can vote for a player they want to be the overall leader of the galaxy called the [[Galactic Commander]]. When a player has the most votes, he or she is automatically appointed the role of GC. The galaxy screen shows the current galaxy staff setup.

==== Minister Of Development (yellow) ====

The MoD is responsible for the Galaxy Fund. He can donate funds to the smallest planets in the galaxy (the planets with the lowest score). He can also regulate trade within the fund: at any time the MoD can choose to forbid or allow trade of one or more (or even all!) types of resources.

==== Minister of Communication (light blue) ====

The MoC is the spokesperson for a galaxy: he can send message to all other MoCs in a certain Cluster, or to all members within the Galaxy itself. Another task of the MoC is to keep the Galaxy Forums tidy.

==== Minister of War (red) ====

The Minister of war is responsible for arranging attacks and defences in a galaxy. He's generally the one, together with the Minister of Communication, that organises contact information on the forums and overview for defence. He may often also look for galaxies for his own galaxy to attack.

'''Note:'''
Not all galaxies follow these ideas. Some planets play with friends and alliances as much or more than their own galaxy mates (especially for attacking). Therefore it's a good idea to also have an alliance.

The bottom line for defence and organisation is your galaxy, and generally "galaxy mates" know each other quite well by the end of the round. Communication is essential, which is why many galaxies use a form of communication such as [[IRC]] where they have their own private channel to discuss and organise galaxy issues. Mobile phones are often also used in emergencies, such as when the galaxy is being heavily attacked (although giving your mobile phone out is always optional).

It's generally up to the galaxy how much they play for fun and how active they are, as in any galaxy there's some people on 18 hours a day and some only 2-4 hours. As there's only a limited amount of people in a galaxy, some of the more serious players are determined to get active players, but even the smaller less active galaxies often have a certain amount of fun.

== Alliance: 1st line of support ==

Beside galaxies, your main line of defence is [[alliance|alliances]]. Alliances are groups of players that agree to defend and perform coordinated attacks together.

=== Are Alliances Made Of Green Men And Cheese? ===

Alliances have several ranks within them.

The [[High Commander]]s are in charge of the alliance. There's no set limit for how many people are in this most powerful position, but generally there's between 3 and 5 who are in ultimate authority.

[[Officer]]s sort out the alliance attacks and defences, and are often responsible (together with some of the HCs) for the technical responsibility of the alliance. Some are in charge of intelligence, internal and external affairs, and even "scanners" - those devoted to scanning for the alliance.

Normal members (aka. pe0ns) help with duties within the alliance, but mostly are required to be as active as possible and participate in alliance attacks and defences. Some alliances give points for attacking and defending, so they can keep track of how helpful alliance members are. Alliances generally are organised on IRC and often have their own forums and/or IRC servers to increase privacy and communication ability. Some alliances have a "minimum IRC activity time" together or instead of a points system - inactive players don't pull their weight in the long term and so often require a lot more defence than they give. At the beginning of the round, many alliances would prefer players with less experience but that are online 8 or more hours a day than experienced players that won't be on more than 2 hours a day.

=== How Do I Get An Alliance? ===

Most alliances require [[IRC|IRC]] activity. The established alliances require vouches (people already in the alliance knowing you and saying you're a good player), but many just interview and require a minimum activity time. A list of all the Round 14 alliances playing can be found on the [[:Category:Alliances:Round_14|Round14 alliances page]]. New players should look in the [http://pirate.planetarion.com/forumdisplay.php?f=37 Alliance Recruitment Forum].

== Combat ==

This is a space war game in which [[combat]] is an important part.

=== Ships, Classes and Targets ===

Ship from different [[Ship_Class|classes]] can be categorized into their respective [[Ship_Type|primary functionalities]].

=== Inititative ===

[[Initiative]] defines the order that ships fire in battle. Generally, [[Race|Cathaar]] EMP ships fire first, then [[Race|Xandathrii]] ships, then [[Race|Terran]] and [[Race|Zikonian]] kill ships and [[Race|Cathaar]] kill ships, and then the astropods, and then steal ships, and then structure killers.

=== Arm/Cost and Dam/Cost explained ===

In the [http://game.planetarion.com/stats.pl?page=33 ship statistics] these are, in some ways, more important than the armour, damage and cost columns themselves. They summarize these columns by saying, per cost, how much armour or damage the ship does. This means you can quickly compare ships no matter their different costs. looking at Terran, you can see their "Arm/Cost" column is much bigger than the other races. [[Race|Cathaar]] and [[Race|Xandathrii]] have bigger "Dam/Cost" columns, but keep in mind that 6 of the [[Race|Cathaar]] ships only stun their opponents (the ships that are listed as EMP).

==== Attacking ====

Look around for targets you can handle, unit scan, produce a [[battle calculation]] and attack. Remember to send enough [[pods]] to capture 25% of the targets [[asteroid|roid]]s, which have an armour of 50. Get a News scan at [[ETA]] 1 or a Jump Gate Proble scan between [[ETA]]1-4 to be aware of any defence the planet might have obtained. It is advisable to watch your targets resource spending during the attack not to be caught unaware of ships coming out of production. The [http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=185199 How to Attack] thread on the [Strategy] Forum outlines a procedure for attacking, however it does include some more advanced [[:Category:Terminology|Terminology]] so it may be initially confusing, however it is still a good viable guide. Furthermore, a description of the various [[Fleet Strategy]] is also available - it outlines common names for the various tactics involved, provides an example, and identifies counter-strategy too. Again, it uses complex [[:Category:Terminology|Terminology]] and so it is something to work towards :).

==== Defending ====

When under attack several planets will receive defense from their alliance. However, those without an [[alliance]] have to rely on the planets within their galaxy (or a buddy within the cluster) to receive defence. In-galaxy defence is usually coordinated within the galaxy's [[IRC]] channel.

If you have just started out, you will likely be uncovered, meaning you do not have enough ships in defensive to stop the attacker from taking a share of your roids.

Sending random ships for defence is counter-productive as ships target a certain [[ship class]]. Unit scanning the attacker and producing a [[battle calculation]] based on an estimation of what the attacker sent should always be done before any defence is done.

== Troubleshooting ==

=== Can't Login? ===

* Check that computer time is set correctly
* Clear cookies, cache and restart browser.
* Gamepage does not load, while others do? Restart internet connection or your computer.

=== Exceptions ===

If you play from the same place as someone else in your family, it is strongly recommended you apply for an [[exception]].

Loging in from different url's :

http://p45.planetarion.com/

http://round15.planetarion.com/

http://struggleforsupremacy.planetarion.com/

== Further Help ==

[[Sovereign]], a Planetarion [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]] [[Moderator]] is able and very willing to help players who are new, uncertain on where to go or what to do next, or to provide advice and assistance on a whole range of topics in Planetarion. The [[HashStrategy|#Strategy]] Channel on the Netgamers [[IRC]] Network (see [[Connecting To IRC]]) is ideal to drop by, or you can make a post on the [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]] for a more in-depth answer. [[Sovereign]] also maintains other Planetarion Resources, some of which can be found in the [http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=169297 Useful Links] (Help Guides section) thread on the [[Strategy|Strategy Forum]].

[[Category:Strategy]]

Category:Strategy

2005-12-19T02:13:28Z

KingAlan:

'''strategies''' for survival and success in Planetarion belong in this category.

Note: The 'Ships' subcategory contains several articles about modern ships and how you would use them (what to combine them with and what to send them against), hence that is why the Ships category fits in with the Strategy category.

Category:Ships

2005-12-19T02:10:53Z

KingAlan:

 

"Ships" are the core of Planetarion. Since [[round 6]], there have been 4 different races, who each have a unique set of ships. Each race currently has 12 types of ships; and these are NOT divided evenly by ship class. (i.e. each race does not have 2 ships of each class) Xans have not had Cruisers or Battleships for quite a while now, and for [[round 15]] Cathaar doesn't have any Frigates, and Zikonians don't have any Destroyers. (However, Zikonian players can use their Pirates to [[steal]] Destroyers...)

Being good at Planetarion strategy requires you to be well aware of your ships' strengths, and being able to exploit any weak spots in a target's fleet. Each of the pages on modern ships gives some advice on how to use that ship.

Note: Many of the links below refer to 'obsolete ships', i.e. ships that don't exist in Planetarion anymore. In addition, these articles sometimes offer some backstory about a particular shiptype.

[[Category:Strategy]]

Clipper

2005-12-17T22:37:17Z

KingAlan: started article

The Clipper is a Zikonian frigate-class ship that targets BS. As such, it is most useful in attacking Terrans (especially those with minimal Wyverns/Dragons) and defending against Terran or Zik BS fleets.

==Stats==
Here is the 'Clipper' line from the r15 shipstats-
Clipper Frigate Battleship Norm 7 70 90 6,000 6,000 8,000 35 45

[[Category:Ships]]